


Christmas Adventure

by SamanthaAuburn



Category: Good Game (TV 2017)
Genre: Christmas Story, Fluff, M/M, Obligatory Christmas Fluff, So freakin' fluffy that your teeth with hurt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-21
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-17 21:45:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13085988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SamanthaAuburn/pseuds/SamanthaAuburn
Summary: It’s Christmas in the Esports People household! Alex is over the moon and he’s determined to make this the best Christmas ever. After all, it’s the first time in a long time that they have reason to celebrate. But when he brings up the idea of an Esports People gift exchange, Ryland has no idea what to do. What does he know about buying gifts? All he can do is hope for a cheesy Christmas miracle to save him.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Oops, I couldn’t stop writing you guys. I have three or four Christmas themed writing prompts in my Tumblr inbox, so I thought I’d combine them all into a short little Christmas Adventure (totally making reference to my favorite Jingle Grumps playthrough) and do a couple chapters before the Big Day on Monday. =D Enjoy this tooth-rotting fluff monster of a story. XD 
> 
> PS. Assume these Christmas prompts to essentially be in the Switched AU canon, since the forms of Ryland and Alex I created for that world basically took over my brain. Headcanon FTW.
> 
> Today's Prompt: “Can’t I just give you 20 dollars and you can just go buy something for yourself?”

Ryland paused the video he was watching, pulled out his earbuds, and turned. Yup, someone was definitely pounding on the front door. He scooted out of his chair and headed down the hallway to their front door. 

_Their_ front door. His and Alex’s front door. Their house. Their _home._ It had been several months since they had moved in to the new house they were renting from Lorenzo, but a soft pleasure still ran through Ryland’s system thinking about it.

His home. And his Alex. _As it should be,_ Dan had said. He hoped Dan and Arin were doing okay.

The pounding on the front door grew more insistent. 

“Okay, okay, I’m coming,” Ryland said. He opened the door.

And was greeted by a shaking Douglas Fir tree. 

“What the hell?” 

“Help me with this thing,” Alex said, his voice buried behind the Christmas tree. “It’s way fucking heavier than I expected it to be.” 

“Why the hell did you get a Christmas tree?” Ryland said. He gripped part of the tree’s trunk and helped Alex drag it in. “We’ve never gotten a Christmas tree before.” 

“When did we ever have the funds to?” Alex asked. “Or the space for that matter.” He maneuvered the tree toward to the fireplace in the living room and settled it a good distance from it. Ryland noticed it had already been placed in a fancy tree stand and everything. He frowned. 

“How are we supposed to get water in this thing? The lower branches go down too far.” He paused. “Actually, how are we supposed to even decorate it? Neither of us have ever owned Christmas decorations.”

“All taken care of!” Alex said. He dashed out of the house and returned with his arms full of bags absolutely stuffed with Christmas decorations. “Everything we’ll ever need for the holidays!” He dropped the bags on one of the new couches, which had replaced their old ones just a few weeks ago. Digging through one of the bags, he pulled out a large, silver and blue menorah and a box of long taper candles. He placed the menorah on the coffee table and carefully pressed the candles into it. 

Ryland couldn’t help but let a smile grace his features at Alex’s joy. “You’re really going all out this year.” 

“Of course!” Alex pressed the last candle in, then stood up and gave Ryland a big hug. “It’s the first Christmas in a long time where we actually have something to celebrate.” He kissed Ryland’s forehead. 

Ryland hugged him back. “So does that mean I should put off my Killcore practice and help you decorate the tree?” 

“I thought we’d have a decorating party with the team,” Alex said with a grin. He pulled away from Ryland and began riffling through the bags, pulling out Christmas and Hanukkah themed garlands. “And we can do a gift exchange.” 

Ryland froze. Oh, shit. _Gifts.,/i > Christmas involved gifts. _Fuck._ Ryland had no idea how to buy gifts. . . he had never really had the money to ever do it._

_That had changed. . . a lot. They had their prize money from Blood Match, several sponsors paying them for Killcore tournaments, and Alex had just started getting checks for the singing work he did with TWRP. For the first time in Ryland’s adult life, money wasn’t an issue._

_But what the hell did he know about buying Christmas gifts? He couldn’t even remember the last time he had bought one. Or even the last time he had sent a holiday card. Hell, the few times he HAD “sent” cards, it had been Alex’s doing, sending them in both their names._

_He pressed his lips together. God, that should have been his first sign about Alex’s feelings for him way back when. Maybe he should have taken his dad’s jabs about them being “practically married” more seriously. No wonder his parents weren’t the least bit surprised when he told them about his relationship with Alex._

_But. . . gifts. . ._

_“Can't I just give you 20 dollars and you can just go buy something for yourself?”_

_Alex frowned, looking up from the bags. “Your voice cracked, Ry.”_

_Ryland rubbed his arms. “I don’t know anything about buying gifts for people,” he said. “What the fuck am I even supposed to do about that? How do I even start?”_

_Alex put a hand on his hip. “You buy me gifts. I can’t count the number of unicorn themed plushies and sweaters you’ve bought for me over the years.”_

_Ryland blushed a little. “Yeah, well, you’re easy to buy for.”_

_“What makes the others so hard to buy for then?”_

_“I don’t know!” Ryland said. “What do I know about them?”_

_“More than you might think, if you just dwelled on it a moment instead of panicking,” Alex said._

_Ryland held his head, frowning. “You’re not helping. . .”_

_Alex’s frown deepened. “You’re really stressed out about this.”_

_“Yes!” Ryland said. “I don’t know what to do!”_

_Alex glanced down at the decorations spilled out all over their couch for a moment before turning back to Ryland. “I’ll take you Christmas shopping.”_

_Ryland blinked at him. “What.”_

_“I said I’ll take you Christmas shopping,” Alex said. “It’s more fun with a partner anyway.” He winked at Ryland._

_Ryland ignored the obvious intended use of the word “partner”, his mind focused solely on the thought of shopping. Crowds and screaming children and angry shoppers. . . He didn’t think he could take it._

_“Before you freak out, we’ll visit some little out-of-the-way shops and steer clear of the malls and department stores,” Alex said. “They creep me out this time of year anyway.”_

_Well, there went that excuse. “But--”_

_“No buts, Ryland,” Alex said. He smiled and gripped Ryland’s hand. “You said you wanted to do more as a couple with me, right? And learn more about the things I enjoy?” He squeezed Ryland’s hand. “This is one of those things.”_

_Ryland glanced up at Alex, frowning. Alex was right, he knew. And this was something couples did, right? Gift shopping together?_

_“Alright, fine.”_

_Alex beamed. “Great!” He tugged more of the decorations free of their bags. “Let’s get some of these lights and garlands up around the house then we can go shopping. Okay?”_

_Ryland took a deep breath. “Okay.”_

_Shit. What had he gotten himself into?_


	2. Chapter 2

“Alex,” Ryland said, lifting a knitted green sweater out of the last bag of decorations. “What in god’s name is this?” 

“I got you a Christmas sweater!” Alex said. “I’ve never seen you wear one and I know you like sweaters so it made sense to me.” 

Ryland glanced over the green and white sweater. The words “Happy Holidays” were scrawled across the middle, with stripes of white bordering them. Snowflakes also decorated the front.

But what really caught his attention were the two Pikachu heads and the line of Pokeballs near the bottom of the thing. “You got me a Pokemon sweater.” 

“You like Pokemon.” 

“When I was a _kid.”_   
“Dude, I helped you move your room,” Alex said. “You had a whole shelf of Pokemon figures and they were all brand new species. Don’t tell me you don’t like Pokemon.” 

Ryland blushed. “Okay, okay, fair enough, but I don’t need to broadcast it to the world.” 

“It’ll be fine,” Alex said. 

“And how many Christmas sweaters do _you_ own?” Ryland asked, frowning.

Alex rubbed his hair. “Admittedly, not many. But I have a lot of Hanukkah sweaters. Here, let me show you my favorite one.” He dashed to their room. A moment later he came out wearing a light blue sweater decorated with stars of David and a menorah. On the top it read “This is how we Jew it.” Alex grinned. 

Ryland laughed. “Okay, I’ll give you that one.” 

“Put your sweater on and let’s go shopping Ry,” Alex said. “While it’s still light out.” 

Ryland gave the sweater a disgusted look, but sighed and put it on. If it made Alex happy. . .

“Yes!” Alex said. He hooked his arm around Ryland’s and pulled him toward the door. “To the shops!” 

\-----

“Dude, I don’t know what I’m doing here,” Ryland whined as they made their way through a small, independent sports shop. 

“This was the first stop on the way,” Alex said. “And Sam likes sports.” 

“Sam likes tennis, and I’m pretty sure she has enough tennis rackets and tennis balls to tide her over until the apocalypse,” Ryland countered. He wandered up and down the tennis aisle. “Is this where you got your whistle?”

“And my gift for Sam,” Alex said. “Come on, dude, it can’t be that hard.”

Ryland glanced over the wall of tennis paraphernalia, frowning. What do you get for someone who probably already has every tennis thing ever created by man? He picked up a racket and glanced over it.

Maybe. . . maybe you get them a new way to express their love for the sport. He picked a second racket off the shelf and a pack of yellow tennis balls and sighed. “Done. Can we go to the next place?” 

“There you go,” Alex said grinning. “Was that so hard?” 

“Yes.” 

Alex rolled his eyes. “Let’s pay for this and get going.” 

\-----

“You had to come to a game store,” Ryland said. They were in a tiny independent game shop. Dozens of patrons wandered near all the big name brand systems and games, many of them dragging young kids around. 

“Dude, literally our whole lives revolve around games,” Alex said. “How could you not visit a game store?” 

“But it’s so fucking crowded,” Ryland stuck close to Alex, trying and failing to keep his eyes trained on every moving kid in the room. “I hate this.” 

“We’ll be in and out in a jiffy,” Alex said. He pointed. “There’s a pocket of space there. We can wait for someone to move from whatever section you want to be at.” He pulled Ryland toward it.

It was a section of retro games ported to the PC, complete with a selection of arcade sticks. Ryland absently scanned the shelves. 

And one of the games immediately caught his eye. He snatched up three copies, then picked up two arcade sticks. 

Alex blinked at him. “Found something you like?” 

“Yup,” Ryland said. He wouldn’t admit it, but this was actually kind of. . . fun. He felt giddy. “We just have one more place to stop.” 

\-----

“I thought you were trying to avoid the big department stores, Ry,” Alex said as Ryland led him through a Target.

“I know, but I know exactly what I want here and I won’t be able to find it anywhere else,” Ryland said. “At least we’re in housewares instead of toys.” 

“Aww, we’re not gonna go look at the toys?” 

Ryland eyed him.

Alex laughed. “Okay, okay, no toys. What are looking for here anyway?” 

“Shouldn’t be hard to find,” Ryland said. After a moment of searching, he got what he wanted. “This is it. We need some syrup too. And a cookbook.” 

Alex blinked at the item in Ryland’s hand. “Who’s that for?” But then his eyes widened as he realized. “Oh. Ohhhh, I get it now.” 

Ryland actually grinned. “It’s perfect.” 

Alex smiled too. He rested a hand on Ryland’s hair and kissed his forehead. “I love seeing you smile.” 

Ryland blushed, but his smile widened. “I’ll admit it. Maybe I’m having fun.” 

“Good,” Alex said. “Do we need anything else then?” He winked. “Maybe _my_ Christmas gift?”

Ryland rubbed the back of his head. “I. . . kind of already have an idea of what I want to do for that. But I can’t get it in a store.” 

“How cryptic,” Alex said grinning. “Let’s head home.” He held a hand out to Ryland.

Ryland smiled and took it. He normally wasn’t one for PDAs, but after a successful day shopping, it was just what he wanted.


End file.
